CHAPTER IX. 



PARK REGION OF MINNESOTA. 



On the line of the Northern Pacific Railway, away up on the western edge 

 of the inimitable Park region of Minnesota, in Becker county, lies Detroit Lake, 

 a delectable body of water, with thirty-seven miles of irregular short line, filled 

 with game fish. It is the central gem of 237 associated lakes, all lying in the same 

 county ; a galaxy of pure and limpid reservoirs, only made possible by the 

 impetuous spasms of the glacial period. 



* Thirty-seven years ago, when this magnificent transcontinental railway was 

 pushing its toilsome and uncertain course toward the Pacific Ocean, wholly uncon- 

 scious of the natural wonders before it which the coming years were to unfold, 

 an eastern gentleman of sagacious forecast, who had looked the country over, 

 named Detroit Lake as the future lacustrine resort of the Northwest, predicting 

 the day to be not distant when those who loved nature better than the behests of 

 fashion would flock to this region as their predecessors had thronged the Adiron- 

 cacks when all its attractions' were primitive. He located a home for himself on 

 the chosen spot, and the lapse of time has brought his prediction to the front. 

 Comfortable hostelries, with every modern appointment and every luxury of the 

 table, receive hundreds of summer guests. The bounty of the forests and the 

 lakes is poured into their steward's laps with ever changing profusion, and all 

 those accessories of boats, pavilions, music, livery, lawn and indoor games, which 

 make a watering place continually enjoyable, are provided with the same open- 

 handed beneficence which characterizes their domestic economy. Guests who 

 sojourn here find the comforts of home without its cares; a reprieve from toil, 

 and an indulgence whose exercise is grateful and compensating. Appreciating the 

 advantages of a juxtaposition of town and county for Detroit City is a county 

 seat- with a population of fifteen hundred visitors have built cottages and villas 

 along the lake shore; clubs with memberships culled from various distant cities 

 have cosy sites on bluffs along the shores. Fleets of row boats, sail boats and 

 naphtha launches enliven the broad expanse of water, and daily picnics make its 

 confines merry. 



There is a delightful carriage drive around the entire lake, which is for the 

 most part shaded, and lateral roads ramify at intervals to adjacent lakes and wind 

 through alternate groves and prairie, and undulating farm lands, neatly fenced and 

 radiant with the promise of the harvest. The whole landscape is aglow with 

 verdure and vocal with notes of birds and parti-colored insects. It is odorous 

 with summer perfume. The sunlit ripples sparkle between the flecking silhouette 

 of leaves and fill the view with constant surprises, such as metropolitan treasurers 

 have appropriated millions of money to imitate or reproduce in urban parks. 

 Surely it is difficult to express or enumerate the charms of this 1 rare Minnesota 

 Interlaken ! I have looked the entire continent almost over, and am free to say 

 that, for a country devoid of mountain features, and partaking purely of the 

 pastoral, I have found none to equal this in beauty and ever-changing variety. 

 The very contour of the land makes this possible. 



Consider ! This is the center of the great reservoir system which supplies some 



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